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i hope it's ready by wednesday. there's always some little crap that comes up. like last night i'm putting the dipstick tube in and broke it. had a heck of a time getting the motor out. i've pulled auto's before and this was much more of a biatch that those. if bacon hadn't come over i would probably be finishing pulling it today instead of putting it back in. gotta get a dipstick tube somewhere. came home for lunch to call around but 4wd is the only place that has one and it's 2 hours round trip. but, i'm being optimistic and hoping for it to run on wednesday.

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That engine looks awesome. How are you going to cross the fuel line over? I have been thinking of that and I think I am going to run all new line down the left frame. I have seen someone posted about bringing it across in front, that just scares me, too many possible ways to break it. Just wanted your opinion on how you do yours.

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i'm not as worried about the fuel line as i am getting the input shaft to slide into the clutch/pilot bearing. sbacon and i tried for about 3 hours to get that dang thing to slide in and couldn't get it. i'm sitting here typing deciding if i want to drop the tranny tonight or tomorrow. so while i'm at it, who's done this before with a manual tranny and how did you get the input shaft into the motor? i think i'm going to try dropping the tranny, bolt in the motor, then slide the tranny into the motor. i just can't get the motor to slide onto the input shaft.

on the bright side, i did get the dipstick tube in. i had to drive to columbiana this afternoon for it. funny thing is i got two just incase i broke another one trying to get it in and lucky i did because murphy's law struck and i broke the first one.

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btw, thanks for all the complements on the motor. it's a 304, edelbrock performer intake and cam, bored .040 over with mild pistons, flow kooler water pump, anti-cam walk kit, bomb proof mounts, holley 660 truck avenger, HEI ignition, and some bling edlebrock chrome valve covers. exhaust manifolds are stock ones i painted with aluminum paint just so i could fire it up. i'm going to get some headers for it down the road, but i've spent too much on it already so they'll wait. my neighbor has a pipe bender so i was going to ghetto rig some cherry bombs under it.

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That engine looks awesome. How are you going to cross the fuel line over? I have been thinking of that and I think I am going to run all new line down the left frame. I have seen someone posted about bringing it across in front, that just scares me, too many possible ways to break it. Just wanted your opinion on how you do yours.

i'll probably cross it over somewhere in the engine compartment. i put all new stainless lines in when i did the frame off two years ago and just don't feel like obsoleting those nice lines.

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Two things to check, are you sure you got the clutch aligned right. If you didn't that can be a b****. Also you need perfect alignment to make it slide in. I have found if you pull the motor mounts it helps with getting it right because you have more movment.
If you do pull the tranny and go that route try this:
Put the bell housing on(This will not work if you have a bellhousing that has to bolt on inside the housing)
put just the tranny up to the bellhousing slide in as far as it will go I do this by hand(take a break you might need it)
Then turn the tranny 1/4 turn, watch your fingers. this simple little act most of the times get the tranny to slide right in. Turn it back put bolt in, grab a victory beer.
Put transfer case up after that and bolt up.
I have fought with tannys before, since I do this I never fight with them, just put them in.
Hope this helps.

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i did use the alignment tool so that's covered. i just worked all day in the sun so going out to the hot garage and working more isn't high on my list of desirable things to do. i may wait until it cools off a little tonight, try putting it in one more time and then resort to pulling the tranny. btw, the motor mounts are bomb proof. if you're familiar with them you can swivel them all the way against the block so they're out of the way.